11.   By eighth grade, the students from the smaller classes exceeded the reading levels of other students by over a year.

12.   Clinton has made smaller classes a centerpiece of education reform.

13.   Clinton preaches to the choir when talking to Carlos Gonzalez, a fifth- grade teacher at Travis Heights Elementary School in Austin, about smaller classes.

14.   Children in the earliest grades are learning how to function in classrooms, and smaller classes allow teachers to help children adapt to routines of learning.

15.   Conversely, they believe smaller classes give teachers more time with each student.

16.   College consumers, for instance, want smaller classes and more student-faculty contact.

17.   Collins, a veteran teacher, thinks smaller classes are important.

18.   Democrats typically want to increase spending for specific purposes like smaller classes, while Republicans resist the loss of local control that comes with federal dollars.

19.   Despite the intuitive appeal of smaller classes, empirical economists have had a hard time finding any evidence that cutting class sizes increases learning.

20.   Despite the intuitive appeal of smaller classes, economists have had difficulty finding evidence that cutting class sizes increases learning.